Variations in Credit Totals Across DPT Programs

[hapa808]

Hi everyone,

I am currently deciding between programs and noticed that essentially every school has a different number of credits in their curriculum. Of the last two schools I am deciding between, one has an entire curriculum consisting of 100 credits while the other has 112. However, after looking around, I found another school's program consisting of 131 credits!

A 30 credit difference is a ton - presumably around 8-10 classes worth of instruction and likely a large additional cost. Does anyone know if the sheer volume of credits may influence the overall experience for an SPT? Personally, I do not really care as long as the program is accredited and I can pass boards; why pay the extra money as well as deal with the extra stress of 30 additional credits?

I've been looking online for answers but no one has really asked this question. Coupled with the fact that not many have the experience of being in two different DPT programs, I'm not sure what type of answer I can expect. It just seems huge since the 131 credit school essentially has students taking 18 credits almost every semester while the 100 credit school only goes above 15 credits for two semesters. That's gotta be a huge difference in course load and stress, right?

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[dobsonek]

It might just be the way they split up the information/how many credit hours they attribute to clinical rotations/if they add hours for lab or what not. All programs have to meet certain CAPTE standards that are listed out in the syllabus for each course in order to be an accredited program. My program has 119 credit hours and we do have one class that I don’t think other programs have (“rural health and primary care” because we’re located in a very rural community/area of the country), but our tuition is the same each semester regardless of the number of credit hours. For example this past fall and this spring semester we had 18 hours each but this summer we’ll only have 14 hours but the tuition price stays the same (as it will for the duration of the program).
While 18 hours per semester seemed daunting at first it actually didn’t feel like that much as about half the hours were for the labs that went along with our lecture classes. PT school is no joke and the course load is going to be rough regardless of how many credit hours there are per semester. Honestly we don’t even pay attention to the number of hours. Like I said this semester we’re technically taking 18 credit hours but we have half days on Thursday’s and no classes on Friday’s.
Sorry I know this reply was long and jumbled I’m sorry if it doesn’t make much sense!!

 

[hapa808]

It might just be the way they split up the information/how many credit hours they attribute to clinical rotations/if they add hours for lab or what not. All programs have to meet certain CAPTE standards that are listed out in the syllabus for each course in order to be an accredited program. My program has 119 credit hours and we do have one class that I don’t think other programs have (“rural health and primary care” because we’re located in a very rural community/area of the country), but our tuition is the same each semester regardless of the number of credit hours. For example this past fall and this spring semester we had 18 hours each but this summer we’ll only have 14 hours but the tuition price stays the same (as it will for the duration of the program).
While 18 hours per semester seemed daunting at first it actually didn’t feel like that much as about half the hours were for the labs that went along with our lecture classes. PT school is no joke and the course load is going to be rough regardless of how many credit hours there are per semester. Honestly we don’t even pay attention to the number of hours. Like I said this semester we’re technically taking 18 credit hours but we have half days on Thursday’s and no classes on Friday’s.
Sorry I know this reply was long and jumbled I’m sorry if it doesn’t make much sense!!

Thanks this did help! I guess schools may just view credits differently. It's strange that some schools make tuition consistent every semester while others do it by a credit basis. Hearing your experience and schedule with 18 credits did help though so thanks again!